Somerville staff say current emergency notification chain will be refined; councilors told mass alerts impractical during active events

Somerville City staff told the Public Health and Public Safety Committee on June 9 that the city’s current emergency-notification process routes information to ward councilors through the IGA office and that staff are working to refine procedures so at-large councilors receive timely updates without increasing demands on emergency responders during active incidents.

Liaison Hutter said the city has received feedback from at-large councilors requesting broader notification and that the administration is exploring internal process changes to make notifications smoother. Hutter emphasized the difficulty of involving many additional people in an unfolding emergency and the city’s interest in avoiding extra communications that would distract responders.

The chair said he receives updates from IGA and noted that public social platforms can sometimes report events faster than official channels; he and other committee members agreed the current chain is reasonable and marked the item "work complete" by consensus. No changes to the written notification protocol were adopted at the meeting; staff said they will continue to refine internal procedures.

What’s next: staff will continue efforts to streamline notifications and consider options that provide timely information to councilors while preserving operational clarity during emergencies.